igBj|m] -^ - ttftltii£^C0[isJw>^' k:^. ' -"-% ^^^^;'l- -A i'til''+-*^ "' - : ¦- -5 .^^^„^_. _ , ,^ ¦^ 2 >+*¦*»« ttH*-, YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MARCH, 1915 Bulletin of the University of Georgia Volume XV. Number 3 Phelps -Stokes Fellowship Studies, No. 2 6<» V Rural Survey of Clarke County, Georgia, with Special Reference to the Negroes VVa/ter '3afr)a.rA H^'ll Entered at the Post Office at Athens, Ga., as Second Class Matter, August 31, 1905v under Act of Congress of July 16th, 1904. Issued Monthly by the University. SERIAL NUMBER 236 During the academic year 1912-13 there was established in the University of Georgia a Fellowship for the study of Negro problems in the South. The resolution of the Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund in creating the Fellowship reads as follows: "Whereas, Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes in establishing the Phelps- Stokes Fund was especially solicitous to assist in improving the condition of the negro, and "Whereas, It is the conviction of the Trustees that one of the best methods of forwarding this purpose is to provide means to enable southern youth of broad sympathies to make a scientific study of the negro and of his adjustment to American civilization, "Resolved, That twelve thousand flve hundred dollars ($12,500) be given to the University of Georgia for the permanent endowment of a research fellowship, on the following conditions: "1. The University shall appoint annually a FeUow in Sociology, for the study of the Negro. He shall pursue advanced studies under the direction of the departments of Sociology, Economics, Education or History, as may be determined in each case by the Chancellor. The Fellowship shall yield $500, and shall, after four years, be restricted to graduate students. "2. Each Fellow shall prepare a paper or thesis embodying the result of his investigations which shall be published by the University with assistance from the income of the fund, any surplus remaining being applicable to other objects incident to the main purpose of the Fellowship. A copy of these resolutions shall be incorporated in every publication issued under this foundation. "3. The right to make all necessary regulations, not inconsistent with the spirit and letter of these resolutions, is given to the Chan cellor and Faculty, but no changes in the conditions of the foundation can be made without the mutual consent both of the Trustees of the University and of the Phelps-Stokes Fund." I appointed as Fellow under this foundation for the year 19 IS IS 14 Mr. W. B. Hill, a graduate of the University in the Class of 1913, and placed the work under the direction of Professor R. P. Brooks, of the department of History. The present study is published in pursuance of the requirement in the second condition attached to the Fellowship. DAVID C. BARROW, Chancellor, University of Georgia. PREFACE. The first of the Phelps-Stokes Studies, published by the University; of Georgia in 1914, was the result of an investigation into the con ditions of Negro life in the city of Athens. The second year's work under this foundation, here presented, extends the study to include the Negroes of Clarke County, exclusive of Athens. The study takes the form of a rural survey of the county, canvassing the conditions prevailing among both whites and blacks, because it was felt that after all the really important questions are, what are the Negro's' relations to his white neighbors, and how dd his conditions compare ih certain respects with the conditions prevailing among the whites? It would have been neither practicable nor profitable to consult all of the 1300 farmers of the county. Instead an effort was made to confer with a number of representative men of both races in each! district of the county. I succeeded in obtaining information from 52 white landowners, 30 colored landowners, and 70 Negro tenants. Three months in the winter bf 1914 were spent in the study of economic conditions, and two months in the spring were used in. the work on schools and churches. W. B. HILL. Athens, Ga., February, 1915. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. Rural Survey of Clarke County, Georgia, with Special Reference to the Negroes CHAPTER I. LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY, AND EARLY HISTORY. 1. Physical Characteristics. What is now Clarke County was a part of Franklin County before the Revolutionary War, and was afterwards included in Jackson, when that county was created by the Legislature in 1796. i Clarke County was cut off from Jackson by an act of the Legislature in 1801, but was not settled at that time. The county was named for the Revolutionary hero, General Elijah Clarke; probably the name was suggested by an Indian trading post named Clarkesboro, which was located near the present northern boundary of the county.- The hew county had an area of 2 50 square miles. It will be interesting to trace the changes which made an originally large county the smallest one in Georgia. The first land taken from Clarke was in 1801, when part of the county was annexed to Madison. The next land taken was added to Oglethorpe in 1813. Madison County was given more land at the expense of Clarke in 1829. But the greatest reduction came in 1875, when the entire county of Oconee was created from Clarke. This left Clarke an area of 74,012 acres, or 115.6 square miles.^ Athens had grown to be an educational center of the State, and had secured a city charter in 1872. Although Athens was at this time much larger than Watkinsville, the smaller town was still the county site. Many of the citizens were in favor of making Athens the county site, but the Watkinsville people naturally opposed the change. The Legislature settled the matter in 1875 by creating^ Oconee County from the southern part of Clarke, with Watkinsville as the county site, and Athens became the site of Clarke. Part of the town of Winterville was added to Clarke from Oglethorpe in 1906,* and the present boundaries of the county are as follows: On the north, Madison; on the south and southwest, Oconee; on the northwest, Jackson; and on the east, Oglethorpe. Clarke County is situated in the hill country of Northeast Geor gia, about forty miles from the Blue Ridge Mountains, whose peaks can be seen from Athens on a clear day. The average elevation of the county is 800 feet. The trend of the water systems is to the southeast, and the ridges leading down toward the sea form the 1 Smith, G. G., story of Georgia and the Georgia People, p. 221. 2 Strahan, C. M., Athens and Clarke County, p. 9. s Ibid, p. 10. The U. S. Census ghes the area of Clarke County as 72,960 acres. Census 1910, Abstract for Georgia, p. 658. 4 Census 1910, Abstract for Georgia, p. 636. 6 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. water-sheds. The principal streams are the forks of the Oconee, one of them known as "Middle River," which meet in the southern part of the county. The county has been described as a "succession of high ridges with broad backs, whose sides descend rapidly as the streams are reached and the general appearance of the country has all the characteristics of that belt of country lying forty miles from the Blue Ridge range in Virginia and the Caro linas." 5 The soils" of Clarke County may be classified as red lands, gray sandy, mulatto, and alluvial bottom soils. The red clay lands, about sixty-five per cent, of the total area, occur in two belts about six miles in width extending across the county. This soil has an average depth of about eighteen inches, with a tougher red clay subsoil. Containing little sand and being fine-grained and com pact, the red clay land is very retentive of moisture. It, is best suited for corn, clover, and wheat, but more than half the red clay area is usually planted to cotton. About thirty per cent, of the county is taken up by gray sandy land, which forms a belt some three miles wide in the middle of the county. This soil is sixteen inches deep and has under it a yellowish or reddish clay, which is not so retentive of moisture as the red land. This land washes more easily than the red clay soil, and is more rapidly exhausted. On the other hand, it recuperates faster than the red clay. It is best adapted to cotton and oats. The bottom lands comprise about five per cent, of the land area. They vary in width, but are narrow, as a rule. This land consists of a dark, alluvial loam, often having a subsoil of tough pipe clay, bluish or white. This land is admirably suited to corn. The forest growth on these lands is about as follows: on the red clay lands, Spanish, red, black, and white oaks; chestnut, pine, and hickory; on the gray lands, white, red, Spanish and post oaks; hickory, pine, and chestnut; on the bottoms, hickory, birch, pine, oak, and walnut. No health statistics are available, but the county has an excellent health record, due to the climate, and the rolling character of the land. The few deaths that occur from contagious diseases are usually from pulmonary tuberculosis and typhoid fever. Deaths from diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, and mumps are rare. There are occasional cases of smallpox, but practically no deaths from this disease. Malaria Is almost unknown. This is explained by the fact that the county is located in the Piedmont section, and that the land is well drained by the creeks and rivers. The numerous streams of the county are not sluggish, but fairly swift at all points, with a number of shoals and rapids. The banks of the streams are elevated, and this has the effect of facilitating drainage, as well as 5 Strahan', op. cit., p. 11. 6 Census ISSO, Vol. VI, Cotton Production in the United States, Part II, p. 92. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 7 8 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. preventing overflows, which in more level country often cause lagoons and swamps. Under the paragraph "Temperature and Pre cipitation" below it will be shown that the county has a climate almost ideal for health. The most important of the streams comprising the county's water systems are the two forks of the Oconee River, which unite on the Oconee County line in the lower end of Clarke. The rainwater fall ing on the area drained by these two rivers runs off rapidly, due to the rolling character of the country. This tendency is offset to some extent by the woodland covering some twenty-flve per cent, of the total area. Then, too, the nature of the ground is such that much rainwater is readily taken up, and later finds its way into the numerous branches and creeks forming the tributaries of the rivers. The flow of water in the rivers and larger creeks is well maintained, while freshets and overflows are very rare. The following table gives the Climatological Data for Athens, 1909-1913.T TABLE No. 1. ' CUmatological Data for Athens, 1909-1913. 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 ' Annual mean 60.9 60.9 63.2 60.5 61.6 ci Highest 96 96 103 99 108 a. Date. Aug. 29 Aug. 25 June 4 Aug. 3 0 July 19 ^ Lowest 11 18 14 9 19 ^ Date, Jan. 31 Feb. 13 Jan. 4 Jan. 16 Dec. 9 " Total for year, in. 51.57 47.26 50.02 54.20 47.12 d Greatest monthly 7.56 8.24 8.52 7.65 7.82 ¦§- Month July June Aug. Mar. Mar. Least monthly 1.56 .23 .73 1.84 .32 ^ Month Nov. Nov. May Nov. Nov. ' No. rain days 105 102 110 119 109 No. clear days 198 173 >> No. partly cloudy 57 38 m Total snowfall T 0 9.2 T No. cloudy 110 154 Pievailing winds west west west west west Elevation of Athens, 772 feet. The- annual mean temperature for these five years was 61.36 ¦degrees Fahrenheit. From the table it is evident that the hottest days usually occur during the latter part of August. The average ot the highest temperatures is 100 and of the lowest 14.2. The coldest^days during the five years were mostly in January. The average'total rainfall per year was 49.9 inches. The wettest season of the year varied between spring and summer, while the least rain fall was in November in four of the years; the average number of rainy days per year was 109. ' This table was compiled from bulletins of the U. S. Weather Bureau entitled Climatological Data for Georgia, for the years 1909-1913. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 9 Taking the normal volume of the rainfall per month for these years, the total fall for the winter months is 14.7 inches, for the spring months, 11.7 inches, for the summer, 14.54, and for the fall, 10.38 inches. These figures show clearly that the rainfall is well distributed throughout the year. Prom these data it is obvious that the county has a climate free from extremes of temperature as Well as "wet" and "dry" seasons. Such a climate is well adapted to agriculture, and excellent from the standpoint of health. 2. Settlement and growth. In 1801 the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia, hav ing decided to place the new institution in Jackson County, fixed upon the site of Athens as a proper location, and in the same year that part of Jackson was laid off as Clarke County. The erection of the first building began at once and in the same year the college was formally opened to students, Professor Josiah Meigs, then pf Yale, being the first president. In 1804 President Meigs graduated the flrst class from the institution. The first settlers in Clarke were from Virginia and North Carolina, but later people came in from the older counties to the south. The settlement around the University continued to grow, and a town charter was secured in 1806, the name of Athens being selected for the little college town. At this time Athens was further north than any other town in Georgia, and therefore nearest to the Cherokee reservation.^ The county government was established in 1802, and a courthouse was erected at Watkinsville, seven miles to the southwest. b. Population by decades. "Like the other hill counties of Georgia, Clarke was settled by people of moderate means,"* who lived on farms which were small compared to the large slave plantations of the cotton raising coun ties, Morgan and Wilkes, for example. But slaves were brought in faster than white settlers came, as the population flgures show. Table n. White and Black Population. Year White Black Per cent. Black 1810 5000 2628 31 1820 5285 3482 39 1830 5438 4738 45.5 1840 5603 4919 47 1850 5513 5606 50 1860 5539 • 5679 50 1870 6488 6453 49 1880 5313 6388 54.5 1890 7072 8111 53.4 1900 8230 9478 53.5 1910 11502 11767 50.5 s strahan, op. cit, p. 9. 9 Smith, op. cit, p . 253. 10 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. Before the Civil War there were two agricultural systems in Northeast Georgia. One was the plantation system, followed by the large slaveholders, and the other was the small farm system, in which the farmer, often with a few slaves, but sometimes without any, raised corn and other food crops, and did not depend on cotton for his money crop, as did the large slaveholder. These small farm ers could not compete with the planters, so they emigrated to the hill counties, like Jackson, where land was cheap. This exodus of- whites resulted in counties like Wilkes and Greene having a good many more slaves than white people, while in Jackson and Madison the whites were decidedly in the majority. Clarke was divided be tween these two systems, the plantation system obtaining in the southern part of the county, but the small farmers predominating in the county as a whole. As a result, the number of whites and Negroes was very nearly equal, and this is the case today. Thus Clarke is sit uated on the border of the 'Islack belt," the counties to the south east being "black," an'd those to the northwest, "white." 1° TABLE III. Table Showing Rural and Urban Population of Clarke County, 1870-1910.11 Urban (Athens). Rural (Rest of County). Year White Black White Black 1870 2248 1679 4240 4774 1880 3017 3011 2296 3377 1890 4715 3924 2357 4187 1900 5055 5190 3265 4288 1910 8612 6316 2890 5451 The table shows that the rural Negro population of the county has exceeded the rural white population since 1870, and has grown relatively faster. The loss of white and black population between 1870 and 1880 in the rural section was due to the cutting off of Oconee County in 1875. The Negro population of Athens came from the counties both to the north and south of Clarke. For thirty years after the war the negroes coming to Athens generally came from old slaveholding counties such as Wilkes and Greene. ' Of later years the migration of the blacks to Athens from outside of Clarke has been scattering, but usually from the "white" counties.12 The increase in the white population of Athens has been due to the facilities for manufacturing ofEered by the water powers of the Oconee, and to the educational advantages of the city. lo Brooks, R. ¦!?., A I.oeal Study of the Bace Problem, in Political Science Quarterly, June, 1911, p. 197. 11 Woofter, T. J., Negroes of Athens, Ga., p. 6. Bulletin of the University of Georgia, 1912. Phelps-Stokes Studies, No. 1. 12 Ibid., p. 7. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 11 \ 3. Economic History. It will be interesting to compare the white and Negro population of Clarke County with that of two adjacent counties, one in the black belt and one outside of it. The figures for periods of twenty years are these: TABLE IV. Population Movements in Clarke (a border county), and Adjacent White and Black Counties.i^ Clarke Jackson Oglethorpe Year White Black White Black White Black 1810 5000 2628 8742 1827 6851 5440 1830 5438 4738 6180 2824 5659 7951 1850 5513 5606 6808 2960 4382 7877 1870 6488 6453 7471 3710 4641 7141 1890 7072 8111 13780 5396 5686 11264 1910 11502 11767 21544 8613 7342 11388 Looking at the population of Oglethorpe for 1810, it is seen that the slaves were in the minority, which means that the small farmers outnumbered the planters. But by 1830 the black population ex ceeded that of the white, and by 1850 this difference became more marked, due to a decrease in the white population of 1,277, and a stationary black population. The increasing difference was caused by an exodus of the whites, carrying a few slaves with them. Some of the small farmers had evolved into planters, and were buying up the land of their less prosperous neighbors. Slaveholders coming in from the lower counties, where the land was being exhausted, also bought out small landowners. These small farmers moved on to Clarke, Jackson, and other counties, where land was cheaper. Looking now at the figures for Clarke, it is seen that during the interval from 1810 to 1850 the number of slaves increased over 100 per cent, while the number of white people remained practically the same. In the southeastern and eastern parts of the county the small holdings were being absorbed by the planters, and the small farmers were moving to Jackson and other counties to the north. The southern part of the county is in the "plantation belt" today, while the northern part is made up of smaller farms. The land in Puryear's District, the most southern one in the county, bordering on Oglethorpe and Oconee, is held mostly in large tracts, and is either rented out to white or Negro tenants, or worked by super vised Negro share and wage hands. The northwestern part of Clarke is "whiter" than the southeastern, the "blackest" district being Puryear's — the plantation district — where the whites con stitute only 18 per cent of the total population. In Buck Branch, which also borders on Oglethorpe, the whites make up only 22 per 13 Brooks, op. cit, p. 198. CLARKE COUKTY DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION AND SETTLEflENTS ? C3 U- PJ u_ o fee ^..iagg*^ "^ <=> 1 f 1 pipi ry°| ^ ^g ^S 1 (=i 1 iij ItJ: pd M 26 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. 13. How the farmers are financed. In order to show how the Negro tenants are financed, let us take for example ten from one district, eight renters and two croppers. Every one of these tenants depends on a merchant at Athens or Winterville for credit. Four secured credit by putting a mortgage on their cotton crop; that is, either by giving a crop lien or by agreeing to sell their cotton through a cotton factor; three got their supplies at their landlord's store in town; one put up his stock as security and another both his stock and crop; and one obtained credit by having his landlord endorse his note. Twenty- two per cent, of the Negro tenants are supplied from farm com- missaries.i2 These, of course, are all croppers. A few farmers buy provisions for their croppers, but when the farmer has neither a store nor commissary, he generaUy gives the tenant an order on a store. Of the Negro tenants, 58.3 per cent, depend on credit at a store, half of these furnishing some security, such as a mortgage on stock or a note endorsed by the landlord, and half getting an order on the store from their landlord. These tenants are practically dependent on the landlords to finance them, and even where they borrow money from a "warehouse man" or cotton factor, the land lord nearly always endorses for them. Most of the tenants who get their credit at stores by means of orders are renters. Eleven per cent, of the colored tenants borrow money from their land lords. This small division represents both croppers and renters. Eight and four-tenths per cent, of the tenants either "run them selves," have their provisions bought by their landlord, or borrow from a cotton factor. The bank is the most popular source of credit with the white landowning farmers, 44 per cent, of those interviewed depend ing on this source. The farmer usually gives a note, and some times a mortgage on his land. Some of the farmers who patronize the banks as a general thing also go to cotton factors for loans at times. The interest paid to the bank was generally reported as 8 per cent, but in a few cases as high as 10 per cent. The cotton factors "carry" the white farmers to a larger extent than the merchants do. Of the farmers interviewed 23 per cent, said they depended on the cotton men to a larger extent than on banks or merchants. The cotton factors charge 8 per cent, on money lent, and the farmer agrees to sell a certain number of bales through the cotton dealer. The farmers relying on merchants for credit make up 21 per cent, of the total interviewed. Instead of borrow ing money they buy their supplies on credit, paying up when their cotton is sold. The rate of interest is one per cent, a month, or 12 per cent., if the account runs a year. 12 This and the succeeding percentages are not based on the total number of tenants, but on those interviewed, about ten in each district. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 27 The Negro landowners are to a large extent financed by mer chants. Forty per cent, of them said that they depended largely on merchants for credit, although a number of these borrowed from banks or cotton factors at times. The banks and cotton factors are about equally popular with the Negro landowners, 28 per cent, borrowing from banks and 2 4 per cent, from cotton deal ers. The Negroes also often buy merchandise other than provisions from merchants, on credit, sometimes paying a high rate of interest. For instance, the difference between the time and cash price of goods is nearly always 10 per cent., and "a cent a month" is often charged in addition. And the merchants sometimes offer the landowners a certain per cent, of the tenant's purchases, in order to get the tenant trade. Of course, this extra revenue comes out of the tenant's pocket. 28 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. CHAPTER III. EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 1. Management and supervision of the school system. The management of the common schools of Clarke County is in the hands of the County Board of Education. This board consists of five men, appointed from the county by the Grand Jury. No two members can be from the same district, and all must be landowners. They are paid $2.00 a day for every day spent in attending to their duties as members of the board. It is the duty of the board to receive the reports of the County School Superintendent, and the monthly reports of the teachers, and pass on them before they are sent to the State School Superintendent. They also consider meas ures recommended by the County Superintendent, and in a general way have charge of the county school system. The Couhty School Superintendent is elected by the people for a term of four years, and is paid a salary of $1,095 a year. The incidental expenses of the superintendent or "commissioner" are also paid. This ofiicer has direct charge of the schools, makes contracts with the teachers, supervises their work, and advises the county board on school questions. Each school is supposed to have three local trustees, who were formerly appointed by the county board, but under a new law are elected by the school patrons in their respective districts. Several of the schools have failed to elect trustees. Under the law, the local trustees recommend teach ers, who are appointed by the County Superintendent, subject to the approval of the County Board. A community so desiring may have the superintendent appoint a teacher without election, but must notify the superintendent to this effect in writing. Teachers desiring appointment apply to the superintendent, and present their license and recommendations. 2. Number of schools, white and black, by districts. Public schools.! Clarke County has 28 common schools outside the city of Athens, 14 for the whites, and the same number for the Negroes. The school districts correspond to the militia districts, but there are more schools in some of the districts than in others, because of the uneven distribution of population. Of the eight militia dis tricts, the Athens district is, of course, best supplied with schools, on account of the city school system in Athens, and the presence of state and private institutions there. Outside of the city limits, there is only one white and one colored school in this district. 1 The facts and figures in this chapter were obtained from the County Sehool Superintendent, from the teachers, patrons, and local trustees, and from per sonal observations by the investigator. CLAM CQ SCHOOL CHURCH & WHITE 0 £ COL.c>RED i IN SAHE 8DIL()IN& Q a > ci td ^ Of!>?^ H OOa K| Ho 30 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. Kinney's District has two white schools, and one colored; Sandy Creek, three white and two colored; Buck Branch, three white and three colored; Puryear's, one white and two colored; Georgia Factory, one for each race; Princeton, one for the whites, and three for the Negroes; and Bradberry's, two white and one Negro school. The civil divisions of the county have been indicated on the school map, since they coincide with the school districts. Prom this map it will be seen that three of the white and two of the colored schools are "county line" schools. This is rather unfor tunate, because pupils from other counties attend these schools, and such pupils are not paid for from the Clarke County pro rata of the State school fund. The teachers are obliged to look to the other county for their remuneration for teaching these children, and, as they are not always sure of getting paid, their salary is uncertain. One of these county line schools is maintained by Clarke because a dozen white children in that school district can not attend school anywhere else. Clarke pays the teacher only twenty dollars a month. More than half of the pupils are from another county. These statements do not apply to the Winterville school, which is located in a town. In addition to the schools of the county, there are several white and colored schools in other counties attended by children from Clarke. And some children at tend school in Athens, but they have to pay for the privilege, as the city schools are supported by municipal taxation. Private schools. The only white private school in the county is the mill school at Whitehall. A "Model and Training School," colored, in Sandy Creek District, gets $500 a year from the Slater Fund. The "Normal-Rural," as the model country school on the campus of the State Normal School is called, is supported four months of the year by the Normal School. These three schools will be described later in detail. 3. Description of schools. White. Nine of the white schools are one-room schools; but two are large enough to be converted into two-room schools, should the number of pupils demand it. Three of these schools have cloak rooms, and two have porches. Pour schoolhouses are two-room buildings, and two of these have one cloakroom each, and one has two cloakrooms. One of the two-room schools, that at Tuckston, is using only one room. The Winterville school has five class rooms and a library. All the school buildings are frame structures, and all except one are painted, but three need repainting badly. Seven of the buildings may be said to be in good repair, six are in fair condition, and one is in bad shape. The Winterville school is the RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 31 only one provided with artificial lighting, swinging lamps being used. Every school room in use is provided with a stove, but the Normal Rural has the only jacketed heater in use. Only three schools have their interiors painted, but practically all are ceiled. Most of the white schools have patent school desks, 200 being in use in the county. The other schools have double desks manu factured in Athens. Five schools have wells on the school property, but only three are in use. Not being used throughout the year, the school wells get in bad condition. One of the schools using its own well also gets water from a nearby spring on private prop erty. Nine schools get their water from wells on private property. The distance of these wells from the schools varies from 200 feet to 200 yards. One of these schools also makes use of a spring. The Winterville school has a well on the grounds that is covered and equipped with a pump. Delapidated Negro church used as a school. There is a great difference in the appearance of the grounds of the different schools. The Normal Rural and Tuckston schools have school gardens, but the grounds of the latter school were ruined by the county's taking top-soil from them to surface the road. The Hodges and Bethaven schools have rose bushes planted out in the yards, and the Buchanon and Fowler schools have flower beds in front of the school buildings. The Princeton school is loca- 32 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. ted on a steep hillside, and the school property is practically useless as a playground. Some of the school grounds present a very bleak appearance, not having a shrub or plant on them. With a few exceptions, the interiors of the white schools are well decorated with pictures, flags, and maps. Pour schools have poor blackboard facilities. Colored schools. Four of the colored schools are held in churches. These are the Billups's Grove, Timothy, Allenville, and Brooklyn schools. The St. James school building is not well suited to school purposes. The Mount Sinai and Shiloh schools are held on the first fioor of lodge buildings. All of the colored schools are one room buildings. ^ix^ 'M Negro ohurch, school, and lodge hall. A social center in Puryear's District. except the Model and Training school, which has three rooms, and the Midway school, which has two. Two of the other school build ings are large enough to have partitions put in them. Two of the one-room schools have two teachers, and the teachers necessarily interfere with each other to some extent. The Model and Training and the St. James schools are consolidated schools. The schools held in church buildings are the poorest ones in the county. One of these buildings is unfinished, and another is in a very dilapidated condition. But, with one exception, these schools are the only colo- ed schools that are artificially lighted, having swinging lamps, and bracket lamps along the walls. The church schools are as un attractive within as they are from the outside. The blackboard RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 33 facilities are wretched, and the frame benches are poor substitutes for desks. There are no pictures or maps in these schools, and few in most of the others. All the schools are heated with unjacketed stoves, some of which are in bad condition. The Model and Training school is the only one that has a garden, and flowers and shrubbery in the front yard. It is in pleasing contrast with the other schools, whose grounds are bare and unattractive. Three of the colored schools are located on the edge of a wooded grove, and this helps the appearance of the grounds to some extent. Nine schools depend on private wells for Type of unimproved School Grounds. (White). their water supply; and four get water from springs off the school grounds. Two schools have wells, and one of these uses its well. Only two of the Negro school buildings are painted. None of the colored schools has patent desks, but four have double benches made in Athens. Pour of the buildings in use are in good condition, five in fair, five in bad condition, and three unfit for use as school houses. Private schools. The mill school at Whitehall and the Model and Training school may be classed as private schools, although the last named is really a county school, which gets funds from other sources. The mill school runs for eight months, and is free to the children of the 34 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. factory operatives. It is supported by the owners of Georgia Factory. The teacher of this school is a high school graduate, who has had normal training. The school is held in a church, and the enrollment is 40. The building is heated by an open fire place, and the equipment is rather poor. The church benches are used in lieu of desks and the school has no blackboards or maps. This school is run to satisfy the mill operatives, who want a school of their own. The Model and Training school has already been described as the best colored rural school in the county. It is also one of the best in the state. It is located in a thickly settled Negro district, five miles from Athens, on the Danielsville road. One of the three Outdoor gymnastic drill. Model and Training School. rooms is elevated above the level of the others, and sliding doors are arranged so that all three rooms may be thrown together, pro viding an auditorium with a stage. The interior of the building is painted, and nicely decorated with pictures, maps, and flags. The school has a library of over 1,000 books. The school is also equipped with an organ, a victrola, and a drum. The four acre^ included in the school grounds were included in a tract of land bought by the first land club, and were deeded to the county by the Negroes. The school house was erected by the General Educa tion Board. In order to get the appropriation from the Slater Fund, the school raises the difference when the county does not give the school $500 a year. This school has been established ten RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 35 The "Normal Rural" school on the campus of the State Normal School in the Athens District. This Model Sehool shows the possibilities of the one- teacher rural school, and serves as an inspiration to the county teachers aud students of the Normal School. School Gardening at the Normal Rural School. 36 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. years, and five pupils have finished its course, which goes through the eight grammar grades. Two of these are at Hampton, and three are teaching. The principal of the school is a graduate of Atlanta University, and one of her assistants is a graduate of Spellman Seminary, Atlanta. The school is a social center in the community, being used as a meeting place for the corn club, and for land club meetings. The Pair Association meets in the school to raise money for premiums to be awarded at the colored county fair. The school gives instruction along industrial lines, not only to the pupils, but to the older Negroes as well. There is a parent- t* ¦ II WltoM^ ' "—- — 1 "^^^1 fie ¦ ~ ^^'Jm ^H ;.-¦ -^^ - -WBSp^g^., „ V 1 .- ¦ ~**'—iu;. -¦-A*-- . ""¦¦-. Pupils of the Normal Rural School at lunch. teachers association known as the "Industrial Club," but the patrons do not give the school the financial aid that they might. On the campus of the Normal School is located the only white country school in the Athens District. This is a model school, con ducted to show the Normal students what can be done in a one-room, one-teache^, rural school. The Normal School pays the expenses of this school four months out of the year, and the patrons pay five dollars a year for equipment and supplies. The school building is fltted out with the most modern equipment. The building is, lighted by four windows, all on one side of the room, thus elim inating cross-lighting, which gives trouble in so many country schools. The school has an oil stove, and a complete outfit for cooking and dining. Sometimes the pupils cook dinner during the RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 37 noon recess, but usually they set the table, and eat their lunches in the school room. Those living near the school often go home for dinner. Each place at the table has a plate, bread-and-butter plate, knife, fork, spoon, tumbler, and napkin. The pupils work in shifts, each shift setting the table on certain days in the week. The children have a school garden and the grounds are planted out with flowers, shrubs, and fruit trees. The children have erected bird boxes, which help to get them interested in nature study. The seniors at the Normal School observe the lessons taught in this school, and sometimes teach classes, but the school is not intended as a practice school. 4. School statistics. The State of Georgia appropriates each year $2,500,000 for the common schools, which enables them to run five months. This fund is prorated among the counties according to population, the division between the races being left to the county officials. In Clarke County only 33 per cent, of the money used for the rural schools goes to the Negro schools, although of the children of school age 63 per cent, are Negroes. The salaries paid by the county to the white teachers during the year were as follows :2 To male teachers, $854.20; to female, $4,440. To the Negro teachers, male, $67.69; female, $2,615.34. Total for whites, $5,294.67; for Negroes, $2,683.03; grand total, $7,977.70. These figures do not represent the total salaries paid to teachers, as the county pays for only a five months term, and some of the schools are supported longer than this by local assistance. Only one of the Negro schools runs nine months. The average monthly salaries paid the teachers by the county are: white males, $70.00; white females, $48.20. There are only two white male teachers, one of whom is paid $80.00 per month, the other $60.00. The one colored male is paid $24.00; the colored female teachers are paid an average of $23.45. The average monthly cost of tuition, to the county, per white pupil, is $2.40; per Negro pupil, $.73. The total value of the 14 white school houses is $9,900, an average of $707. Three of these are owned by individuals, the average value being $400. The county owns only five of the 14 Negro school houses, the value being $2,700, or an average of $540. Four of the negro schools are owned by individuals, the average of these buildings being $200. The remaining five negro schools are conducted in church buildings or lodge halls. The following table shows the enrollment and average attendance at each school, and the number of teachers in the grammar and high school grades: 38 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. ENUOLLMENT NCGTtOES WHITFS ATTENDAWCE (MISHOES WHITES "Po|Dula,i;i.on of ScKool acre, 6 to 18 \jea.T5. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 39 Table IX.2 AVhite Schools. , — Teachers — , Grammar High School School. Em 'oUment Average Grades Grades Male. Female. Attend. Male. Female. Male. Female. Winterville 56 64 96 4 1 Buchanon 18 11 18 Tuckston 16 17 11 Belmont 12 9 18 Centerville 17 17 21 Princeton 49 41 51 1 Hinton Brown 13 14 24 Hodges 18 17 25 Fowlers 17 16 22 Normal Rural 32 14 24 1 Oconee Heights 35 35 46 Lamkins 20 15 22 Barberville 16 11 17 Bethaven 6 6 9 Total 325 283 404 18 Table X. Colored Schools. , — Teacher,s — , Gri immar High School School. Em ¦ollment Average Gi .•ades Grades Male. Female. Attend. Male. Female. Male. Female. Model & Train. 83 115 81 2 Midway 93 96 106 2 Oak Grove 22 29 43 1 Billups Grove 22 26 32 1 St. Lukes 42 48 61 2 Mortons Chapel 56 65 65 2 Macedonia 30 34 33 2 Allenville 28 33 43 1 Timothy 13 22 25 1 Chestnut Grove 49 68 60 2 Brooklyn 25 40 37 1 Mt. Sinai 41 31 46 2 St. James 82 86 75 2 Shiloh 39 50 59 2 Total 625 743 730 22 2 This table and tables X, XI, XII, and XIII were compiled from the County Superintendent's report to the State Superintendent. This report is not pub lished in extenso. 40 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. The next two tables show how the pupils are distributed in the grades: Table XI. School White Schools. GRADES 2 3 4 10 Winterville 12 16 11 88 Buchanon 11 4 2 8 Tuckston 13 4 4 2 Belmont 4 3 4 Centerville 11 1 7 8 Princeton 29 15 10 11 Hinton Brown 6 5 8 5 Hodges 10 8 11 2 Fowlers 10 3 6 4 Normal Rural 18 7 7 11 Oconee Heights 16 14 12 15 Lamkins 8 7 9 7 Barberville 5 7 8 4 Bethaven 112 2 11 46 4 6 9 42 13 12 13 13 11 1 10 1 2 133 4 Total 154 92 100 91 67 40 30 14 13 11 School Table XII. Colored Schools. GRADES 2 3 4 10 Model and Training Midway Oak Grove Billups Grove St. Lukes Mortons Chapel MacedoniaAllenvilleTimothy Chestnut Grove Brooklyn Mt. Sinai St. James Shiloh 6948 4246 34 29 49 12 12 11 25 1856 7 20 19 20 16 30 22 67 47 14 7 18 7 10 10 11 3 18 22 20 15 10 1 12 4 18 15 5 20 10 74 22 18 12 7477 8 24 14 19 57 18 16 1013 3 5 13 3 2 41 Total 385 257 212 185 80 39 Two of the white schools ran nine months, three ran seven months, and one six. The other white schools had no local aid and ran only for five- months, the length of the public or free school term. Only one colored school had a term longer than five months, and this school's term was nine months. The next table gives the number of children of school age, by races, in the militia districts of the county. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 41 Table XIII. School Census, 1913. Districts White Negro Grand Male. Female. Total. Male. Female. Total. Total. Athens 55 73 128 55 65 120 248 Bradberrys 31 38 69 77 71 148 217 Buck Branch 100 96 196 180 205 385 581 Kinneys 62 59 121 101 90 191 312 Princeton 57 45 102 56 84 140 242 Puryears 22 20 42 125 125 250 292 Sandy Creek 37 34 71 109 124 233 304 Georgia Factory 79 91 170 49 46 95 265 Total 443 456 899 752 810 1562 2461 In Georgia, "school age" means from 6 to 18 years of age. The table shows that there are nearly twice as many Negro children of school age in the county as there are white. The figures for the Athens District are for the rural part of that district, outside the city limits. Puryear's District has only 42 white children of school age, and, as a good many of them do not attend school, it is hard for the Belmont school to keep going. Some of the people send their children to Winterville. Comparison of the races with regard to school attendance. Of the 899 white children of school age, 638 are enrolled in the schools, and the average attendance is 421. Thirty of these chil dren attend school in other counties; of the total, 70.9 per cent. are enrolled, and 65.9 of those enrolled is the average attendance. Forty-nine and two-tenths per cent, of those enrolled are boys. Of the 1562 Negro children, 1381, or 88.4 per cent, are enrolled, but the average attendance is only 737, 53.4 per cent, of those enrolled. Forty-eight and one-tenth per cent, of those enrolled are boys. Eleven of the Negro children attend school outside of the county. A large per cent, of the Negro children are enrolled, but the white children attend school more regularly than the Negroes. The per cent, of negro children enrolled in the schools is remark ably large, and it would seem from the figures that the Negroes are more anxious to send their children to school than the whites are. The poor attendance on the part of the Negroes is due to the fact that their parents need their help on the farm. But this is not always the case, for the Negroes do not seem to appreciate the value of regular attendance, apparently not understanding that a child's schooling does not amount to much when he attends fitfully. Some of the white children are probably kept out of school alto gether to work on the farms, but the white people as a whole are not as dependent on their children's help as the Negroes. The per centage of white children enrolled in the schools ought to be as good as that of the Negro children, if not better. Some children 42 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. of both races, too small to be of much use at home, are kept out of school, but as a rule it is the larger ones, whose help is valuable to their parents in working the crops. Illiteracy.' Exclusive of the city of Athens, 24.9 per cent, of the population of Clarke County, above the age of 10 years, was reported as illiterate by the Census of 1910. There are 200 illiterate whites, or 9.2 per cent, of the population included in this age group; and 1306 Negroes, or 34.7 per cent, of those ten years old and over. The total number of illiterates in both races was 1506, for the entire county. 5. Funds for supiiort of the schools. Lack of funds makes the maintenance of the county school system a very difficult matter. The money paid by the state for the com mon schools is not sufficient to pay adequate salaries to the teach ers, and meet other school expenses. Furthermore, this money is never paid promptly. Rather than make the teachers wait months for their pay, the county board borrows money and pays them. The interest on this money borrowed during the year 1913 was $267.40, a sum which would have gone far towards improving the school buildings and grounds of some schools. In the days when the county sold whiskey through a dispensary ' at Athens, the school system was well maintained, the teachers were paid igood salaries, and were paid promptly. At the time the dispensary was abolished, the county had $13,000 available, not having used all the money paid by the state to the county for schools. To run the schools with money made from the sale of whiskey was a strange way to educate children, but schools cannot be run without money. This school fund has been used up, and the schools get no money now except from the State, as local tax has been defeated. Two districts were in favor of local county tax, but afte;r investigating the matter the people of these districts decided against local district tax. The state law on local district tax is extremely unsatisfactory. The district must elect two officers, a secretary and a treasurer, the latter under bond. The district local tax is collected by the county tax collector and turned over to the district treasurer. The County School Superintendent gives the district treasurer the district's share of the county's school fund, and the treasurer pays the teach ers in Ms district, but the Superintendent controls the schools, as in the other districts. The district officers report all corporations in their district to the Comptroller General of the State, who col lects the tax on them and sends the money to the treasurer. The 3 The Census of 1900 did not report illiteracy for the County exclusive of Athens City, so it is impossible to say how much illiteracy declined in the rural part of the County during the last ten years. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 43 two district officers have to make a quarterly report to the State Superintendent of Schools on the condition of the schools in the district. All the treasurer receives for his work is a small per centage of the money handled by him. The districts have not been able to find men willing to undertake this work. 6. High Schools. The only high school in the county, outside of Athens, is the Winterville school for whites. This school has ten grades, each of the five teachers having charge of two grades. All the teachers White church and school on the Lexington road, the line between Puryear's and Buck Branch Districts. are college graduates. Besides the pupils from Winterville, this school has pupils in attendance from Buck Branch, Georgia Factory, and Puryear's Districts, and from Oglethorpe County. Winterville is an incorporated town, but there is no municipal school tax levied. However, the people of Winterville and the patrons support the school very loyally. In order' to supplement the school fund so as to have a nine months session, scholarships are sold at $15.00 apiece. Each patron is supposed to purchase a scholarship for every child of his in school. Those unable to do this, pay what they can, and the well-to-do people buy extra scholarships. Several citizens who have no children in school subscribe for scholarships in order to make up the necessary amount. The school has a playground of two acres. The school house is a frame structure, having six rooms. It needs repainting, and the 44 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. blinds should be repaired. The rooms are artificially lighted with swinging lamps. All the rooms are fitted with patent school desks. The school building has been used for school fairs, but the pupils hold their public exercises in the town auditorium. The present building is too small, and ought to be replaced by a brick structure, having a larger seating capacity, and a school auditorium. 7. Organizations. One serious defect in the county schools is the lack of organiza tion among the pupils and patrons. Only one white school reported a parent-teachers' association. As a rule, though, every school has one trustee who takes an active interest in school affairs, and looks after repairs on the schoolhouse. 8. Facilities for recreation. Libraries. Another striking defect is the absence of recreational facilities. The Model and Training school and the Normal Rural are the only schoools having any play-ground apparatus to speak of.. The play grounds of the other schools are woefully lacking in this respect. Most of the grounds are either too small or too rough for ball games. Six of the white schools have so-called libraries. One teacher of a white school having no library lends the children books. The Winterville school has a library of 550 books, especially selected for the different grades. The Normal Rural has an excellent little library of 50 books. The other school libraries range from 12 to 75 books. One teacher said that her school library was a good one, but was not of much use to the school, as most of the pupils were in the lower grades, and the books were too advanced for them. Only two colored schools have libraries, but one of these is unusual ly well selected. The other consists of 30 books, some of them text books. 9. School rules and regulations. The school term of those schools having no local aid begins January fourth. In thirteen of the colored schools, and in some of the white schools, the session is divided into a winter term of three months and a summer one of two. The County Board of Educa tion determines when the summer session of each school shall begin, after considering local conditions. The maximum and minimum number of pupils in any school is left to the superintendent, but no teacher is allowed to enroll more than the maximum number, or continue the school after the attendance falls below the minimum, usually 20. Each teacher is required to keep a register. Any pupil absent from school two consecutive days during any school month, except for unavoidable cause, may be suspended. Pupils are not allowed to change schools during the term, except with the super intendent's consent. Pupils of school age, living in adjoining RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 45 counties, may attend a school in Clarke, provided there is no public school in their own county, nearer their residence; but teachers have to keep a separate register for their names, and teachers are not paid by the Clarke County Board for these pupils. Pupils are required to attend the school nearest their residence. Teachers are required to open their schools by 9 A. M., sun time, and to engage in actual work with their pupils not less than six hours each day. Pupils are not allowed to attend school unless they have the nec essary books. Schools houses belonging to the county cannot be used for other than school purposes except by permission of the board. "Patrons are expected to furnish fuel and other necessary articles and supplies for the use of the school, and to make and pay for such repairs, as may be needed to schoolhouse or furniture." 10. Results of the School Questionnaire. Most of the information obtained from the questionnaire for schools has already been used. One of the objects of this question naire was to find out what preparation the teachers have had for their work. Five o.f the white teachers are college graduates, and three are normal graduates. Eight are graduates of high schools, and three of these have attended college. Three teachers, not high school graduates, have attended normal schools and colleges. Three teachers hold high school licenses, or professional certificates; eighteen hold general elementary licenses. Eleven teachers have attended summer school. The others teach during the summer, and hence cannot attend. Three of the colored teachers are college graduates, three are normal graduates, and nine are graduates of high schools. Two reported that they had completed the eight grades of grammar school. Six hold general elementary licenses, and eighteen hold primary licenses. Four colored teachers have attended summer school. Another object of the questionnaire was to ascertain the size Of the school grounds, and what the sanitary conditions at the various schools were. One of the white schools has three acres, and can get more land when it is needed. Five schools have two acres each; seven have an acre apiece, and one has only three- fifths of an acre. One of the colored schools has four acres; four have two acre grounds; two have one and one-half; two have three-fourths of an acre, and one has only half an acre. Ten of the white schools have two outhouses, and the other four schools have one. Pour Negro schools have no outhouses of any sort. These schools are held in churches. One negro school has a double toilet, consisting of a frail shack with a partition in it, and used by both boys and girls. Toilets of this kind work for 46 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. immorality and are worse than none at all.^ Three Negro schools have one outhouse, and the remaining four have two each. In the case of one white school, the school grounds are so small that the toilets are too near the school building. Most of the toilets are not kept in a sanitary condition. This statement applies to both the white and colored schools. The cause of this neglect may be ascrib ed to the fact that there is no provision for having them looked after. In some cases, the teacher hires a man to do this work, and at some schools a local trustee has the toilets cleaned. As a rule, the school toilets are the poorest type of privies, unpainted, and some of them are almost ready to fall down. ^ Eight white teachers answered the question about supervised play by saying that they did supervise the children's play. This means that they stay on the grounds at every recess. Four white teachers reported that they played with the children at times, or gave occasional supervision. One white teacher suggests new games, and directs the play of the children. One white teacher said that she supervised the play of the younger children. The Model and Training school was the only colored school that reported reg ular supervision. Three colored teachers play with the children, particularly the younger ones, and three reported some supervision of play. On the question of schools as social centers, seven white schools reported that the school house was used for some purpose out of school hours. The use made of the schools is occasional, not reg ular, being generally for school entertainments to raise money. One school building is used as a union meeting house, and one is used as a Sunday School. The colored schools housed in churches are, of course, used for church and Sunday School purposes. One colored school house is used for lodge meetings. 11. Comments on the school situation. The investigator questioned teachers, local trustees, and patrons, to learn what criticism they had to make of the schools. Many of the colored local trustees said they considered it a mistake to divide the short school term, but they did not see any way to avoid it, as most of the patrons would take their children out of school to help with the spring planting. All of the trustees were in favor of having at least seven months school, but most of them thought that two of these would have to be the months of July and August. The trustees of those schools held in churches thought that the most urgent need was a school building, so that the children could have desks instead of benches, and good blackboards. It was point ed out by several trustees that the large, two-teacher schools should have a partition put in them. One trustee said that the schools * Weatherford, W. D., Present Forces in Negro Progress, p. 122. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 47 ought to have better teachers, but that they had fairly good ones, considering what the teachers were paid. Another suggested that some plan be adopted to keep the teachers from moving from one school to another so often. The white trustees all said that they considered the school session given by the state entirely too short, and a number of them ex pressed the opinion that it was the duty of the patrons to supple ment the school fund, so that every school would have a seven months, or, if possible, a nine months, term. Opinion was divided as to whether the term would have to be divided into a winter and summer session, but the majority was in favor of a continuous session. One trustee of a county line school said that each county ought to furnish a teacher, or else Clarke ought to furnish two, and another room be added to the school house. Two stated that the school grounds were too bare and unattractive, and that the patrons ought to plant them out in shrubs. These two also said that the school houses needed repairs. On the whole, it must be admitted that the schools of Clarke County, white and black, are inadequate. This is due to the fact that the people of the county depend wholly on the state appropria tion for schools, which is insufficient to sustain an effective system. In two elections the people of Clarke have refused to authorize local taxation for schools. No improvement is to be expected until the public conscience on this subject is aroused. An effort was made two years ago to introduce the "county unit" idea. Under the terms of the proposed arrangement, the administration of the city and rural schools was to have been combined, the term in the rural sections raised from five to nine months, and other improvements made. This scheme was defeated at the polls by the united action of property owners in the city of Athens, who disliked the extra tax involved, and of country people, who feared they might become liable for the educational bonds of Athens. The rural sections, furthermore, were opposed to surrendering the control of their schools, as was represented to them would be the case should the new system be adopted. It is said that even the tenant class oppose local taxation for schools, believing that the tax would eventually fall on them in the shape of increased rent, a groundless assumption, as the landlords are far from being in a position to raise rents arbitrarily. When the teachers were asked how much cooperation they re ceived from the patrons, very different replies were made. For instance, one teacher said, "They cooperate with me as much as I have any right to expect; I never ask for anything without getting it," while another replied, "The school patrons seem inclined to work against me, rather than with me; they do not want their children disciplined." Other replies were: "They help me to secure regular attendance"; "At times they meet to discuss the school's 48 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. needs"; "I get some cooperation, but all my pupils are from tenant families, and they do not feel any permanent interest in the school." All these replies were made by white teachers. One of the colored teachers answered, "The parents do not make the children attend school as they should. The attendance falls off most as the end of the term approaches." Another said, "No, the patrons do not co operate with me much, except by contributing ten cents a month for crayon and other supplies." RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 49 CHAPTER IV. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. A. Religious Conditions. 1. Number of Churches. Active. In Clarke County, outside the city of Athens, there are 17 colored and 8 white churches. Of the white churches, two are on the county line, and have members living in other counties. As there are two white Methodist churches and one white Baptist church over the line in other counties, with congregations made up partly of people living in Clarke, these were regarded as belonging to Clarke, and the county may be said to have eleven white churches. Dormant. Two colored churches are practically dormant, as one has no regu lar pastor, and only occasional services, while the other has become a mission church with only a dozen members. Several of the white churches are not gaining in their already small membership. Dead. There are two dead churches in the county, one white and the other colored. The white church died because it was built in a community already supplied with churches, and the failure of the colored church was due to the fact that it was a "family affair," that is to say, was founded by a family of one denomination in a settlement made up of people of another denomination. Such churches are foredoomed to failure through lack of sustaining membership. One white church has within recent years been moved over the county line into Madison County. Four white churches have died out in Clarke inside of the last twenty-seven years. i This was probably due to the movement to town which has been going on in Georgia, and to the increase of absentee landlordism and Negro tenancy in Clarke County. 2. Churches and population. Outside of Athens there is a white church for every 185 persons, and a colored church for every 308 persons. The white churches have a total membership of 1041, and the Negro churches 2486. Hence 42.9 per cent, of the whites and 50.4 per cent, of the Negroes attend church in the county. Practically all the Negroes claimed membership in some church, but when asked where their church was located, the investigator would often be told that it was "way 1 Home and Farmstead, Athens, Ga., Vol. XII, No. 33, p. 3. 50 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. down in Oglethorpe." The Negroes are very loath to move their membership from one church to another. So when they migrate to Clarke from other counties, they keep their membership in the old church, and attend services at churches near their new home. One clerk of a Negro church was found in another district from that in which his church was located, several miles away from the church. There were three churches of his denomination nearer his home than the one with which he was affiliated. The white "mill" churches suffer from the same trouble. One white church in a mill settlement was carrying the names of twenty-five persons Negro Methodist church in Sandy Creek District. 12 members. The membership of this church was depleted by emigration to Arkansas and Mississippi. on its roll who had moved to another mill and were attending another church. The figures showing the membership in Clarke County churches, by race, are apt to be deceptive unless other factors than number and size of churches are considered. Besides being the smallest county in Georgia, Clarke has an excellent road system, and both whites and Negroes attend church in Athens, as well as in other counties. There are a number of both white and colored churches in other counties not far from the line of Clarke. The white people, especially, attend churches in Bogart, Oconee County; Arnoldsville, in Oglethorpe; and in Hull, Madison County. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 51 4. Denominations; relative strength. The prevailing denomination among the white people is the Methodist; and among the colored people, the Baptist. AU but three of the eleven white churches are Methodist; while fourteen of the seventeen colored churches are Baptist. Of the other three Negro churches, two are Methodist and one is a Primitive Baptist. Eleven of the fourteen Negro Baptist churches are in the "Jeruel Association," which supports the Jeruel Academy at Athens. The other three Negro Baptist churches in the county are in the "Northwestern Association," whicli contributes money to a Negro Industrial school at Monroe, Ga. One of the white Baptist churches is in the "Appalachee Association," and the other two are in the "Sarepta Association." 5. Preachers. None of the white churches has a pastor on full time. Two of them haye pastors serving one other church; flve have pastors serving two others; and four have pastors with three other churches under their charge. Of the seventeen colored churches, five have pastors on half time; six have pastors serving two other churches, or on one-third time; and six have pastors with three other churches to look after, or on one-fourth time. In addition to the regular preachers, the Negroes have a good many vounteer or lay preachers. The colored churches suffer from dissension, whicli frequently re sults in the secession of part of the members and the forming of another church. It will be noticed that while there is a large number of colored churches, considering the size and population of the county, four have less than a hundred members. Some of these should be combined so as to have services three Sundays every month, if not four. While there is doubtless much foundation for the oft-repeated charge that the Negro preachers are lax in their personal morality, yet some of 'the Negro preachers in this county hold a high position in their church community, and are landowners, setting their people a good example by their thrift. One Negro preacher was found who had served his church twenty-five years, and was held in high esteem by the members of his congregation. The Negroes show a disposi tion to favor the preacher who can put on the "rousements" and get the congregation to a high pitch of emotion. 6. Church statistics. The following tables, obtained from the ministers and secretaries of the various organizations, give in succinct form the principal facts bearing on the church situation. 52 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. Table XVI. White Churches, Methodist. a * Name of ^ rf. 3 g ^« r«^ Church o ^ S J 2C j: >-.s; S >H !>. ^v. r2-5 M ft o d B d u ^ 0) o -^ a o pi a> s C4 ¦< f^ :» JHfe- CJOJ MS? Temple Pur. $800 30 50 $115 1(3) 30 Boggs Chapel Kin. 1,600 20 40 400 1(2) 2 40 Tuckston B. B. 1,000 15 87 1(1) 45 Whitehall Ga. P. 1,100 35 75 125 1(2) 40 Princeton Prin. 1,000 18 70 225 2(4) 75 Winterville B. B. 5,500 20 200 1,100 2(4) 2 100 Cherokee Corner Pur. 400 40 100 325 1(2) 2 30 Prospect Kin. 1,500 20 220 302 1(2) 40 Table XVII. Wlilte Churches , Baptist. Name of i S'^ II Church O frr, COOJ ¦ Is tc ^i ¦r* 5j tH .n tri ° i! ^"r^ «.n Ul ft O oj" S a |2 S £ < 01 rZ .a o OM - Edwards Chapel Prin. 1,200 10 66 $100 1(3) 50 Winterville B. B. 2,290 28 198 225 1(3) 2 100 Corinth Pur. 600 27 55 125 1(2) 1 35 Table XVIII. Colored Churches, Baptist. Name of Church >.' (C 3 M OJ s -/i to K !>.'S 01 ^ ^•^ C-.J3 w fto 6» o n ^ P C^ -< r-: w K-2. occ Tll% Central B. B. 1,000 22 200 $25 1 1 35 Shiloh B. B. 800 30 140 175 1 60 Morton's Chapel Pur. 1,020 15 400 180 1 1 100 Bethel S. C. 600 20 50 75 1(3) 30 New Grove B. B. .1,500 20 237 185 1(2) 75 New Shiloh S. C. 700 10 65 140 1 1 35 St. James Kin. 575 V?. 180 125 1(2) 1 40 Thankful Prin. 300 20 52 75 2 30 Mt. Pleasant Ath. 800 2 160 2 30 Billups Grove B. B. 400 1 15 150 1(2) 1 55 Timothy Prin. 100 15 104 150 1 1 25 Chestnut Grove Prin. 1,000 8 163 125 1(2) 1 25 St. Mary's S. C. 1,500 15 150 125 1(3) 35 Mt. Sinai . * The fii'st figure indicates tlie number of Sundays in the month on whieh services were held. The figure in pfirenthesis shows the total number of services held. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 53 Table XIX. Colored Churches, Methodist. a ^.& Name of ^ a 6« Mm =•55 Church v >J C3Ol ¦Jl t>. S a "Sf, s ¦p 3 2 C3 SI a>S St. Luke's Pur. $1,000 20 70 $200 2(4) 1 45 Johnstown S. C. 500 13 12 72 2(2) 6 Primitive Baptist. Mount Perry S. C. 500 10 30 29 1 B. SOCIAL CONDITIONS. The social conditions existing in the several districts of the county are, of course, affected by the distribution of the white and Negro population. In the blackest district of the county there is only one white school, which is not expected to open next year, and all the white churches have died. In this district, as might be expected, are located the strongest Baptist and Methodist colored churches in the county, and two good colored schools. In the white districts the colored churches are weaker, and the schools are not as good as where the Negroes are in the majority. Absentee land lordism and tenancy have had the effect of making the rural dis tricts blacker, and this has not helped social conditions among the whites. There has been a movement to town among the Negroes, but in Clarke County it has been more marked in the case of the whites. The tenants on absentee-owned farms are usually Negroes, and the movement of the white tenant class to the cotton mills has helped to decrease the white rural population. The county is sadly deficient in the matter of organized recrea tion. The only social organization among the whites is a Dramatic Club at Winterville. The custom of going to Athens every Satur day, except in the spring when the farmers are pushed for time, is followed by both races. The trip is a very easy one to make from almost every point in the county. Among the negroes, the favorite forms of recreation, especially during "laying-by time" are "visiting around," fishing and hunting (only in season, according to reports), going to Athens and other towns, attending lodge meet ings, school "performances," and baseball games. The housing conditions among the Negro tenants, and in some cases, among the landowners, are very bad. The Negro tenant house seldom has more than four rooms, and usually two or three. This means that the families are crowded in many cases, two or more persons must occupy one room. Many of the tenant houses are built without weatherboarding, and very few are painted. The 54 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. The old style of Negro cabin, built of hewn logs. This type of house is passing out of existence, but many of the "boarded up" tenant houses are little better. Common type of Negro tenant house. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 55 yards are often littered up with trash, and the sanitary conditions leave much to be desired. A very pleasing contrast is offered by the homes of the Negro landowners, many of them having well- kept premises. But in spite of the difficulties under which the Negro tenants labor, they are undoubtedly better off than the rent ing class in town, since they are not crowded together in dirty settlements, but have plenty of space and fresh air to offset the poor housing conditions. Typical home of Negro landowner in Sandy Creek District. The Negro lodges. The lodges having the largest membership among the country Negroes in Clarke County are the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, United Gospel Aid Society, Good Samaritans, Masonic, and the Independent Benevolent Order. The Masonic, Odd Fellows, United Gospel Aid, and the "I. B. O." are best represented, most of the lodge halls in the county outside of Athens being the property of one of these organizations. The members of the other societies usually belong to a lodge in Athens. The dues paid per month by members depend on the amount of insurance carried, and usually range between 25 and 85 cents. The "sick benefits" paid to members who are thrown out of work on account of sickness is nearly always $3.00 a week, though in a few cases less. Fifty cents a month is 56 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. the amount of dues the Negroes generally pay to carry this in surance. The amount paid by the lodge on the death of a member in good standing is $300 in the case of practically all the lodges, but this depends on how long the membership has been carried, and what dues have been paid. The country lodges are not as strong as those in town, for the country Negro is not so conflrmed a "joiner" as is the town Negro. The explanation of this is that in the country the longer distance which has to be covered at night in order to attend a meeting furnishes a serious drawback. Then, too, the tenant farmer does not have as much ready money through out the year as the wage earner in toA^n, and flnds it harder to pay his dues. Meeting of the Corn Club at the Model and Training School. Cooperation among Negroes for acquiring laud. In 1900 an educated and intelligent colored woman, Mrs. Judia C. Jackson Harris, wife of a teacher in the Athens City Schools, in augurated a settlement scheme in Sandy Creek district, which has proved a uniquely successful and significant undertaking. Mrs. Harris entered a neighborhood of negro renters, none of whom owned land or home, and induced a group of them to organize a Mutual Benefit Society for the purchase of land and the development of a healthy rural settlement. The first club contained ten members. They paid in $100 in cash in 1900 and obtained bond for title to a tract of forty acres (later increased to fifty-five acres), the purchase RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 57 price being $350 for the forty acres. In 1908, all payments having been made and title having been secured to the land, the tract was divided among the members, each receiving an amount proportionate to the sum he had contributed. A second club of seven members was organized in 1903 for the purchase of a tract of thirty-two acres at $2 5 per acre. A third club, formed in 1906 with seven members, purchased sixty-five acres at $23.50 per acre. In both cases the purchase price was paid in accordance with the terms agreed upon and a satisfactory division of the property made. Two other clubs have since been organized. The total amount of land acquired to date is 440 acres, the total amount paid out is $3,330. A group of landowning farmers has thus been created. The story, however, does not end here. Mrs. Harris succeeded in enlisting out side aid and has erected the school already described as the Rural Model and Training School, by far the best rural school in the county. A model cottage was also built as a residence for the originator of the plan.' The school and home form the nucleus of the community, which has been named "Settlement." Fifteen of the new landowners have erected neat homes. The school is well supported by the community and now has an enrollment of 244 in nine grades. In addition to the regular studies, work is given in domestic science and elementary agricultural science. The homeowners of Settlement are adapting themselves readily to advanced ideas of cooperation in other ways than the buying of land. They own a cooperative saw mill, a cotton gin and a thresh ing machine. Both men and boys have been organized into Corn Clubs to encourage the development of this important crop, so gen erally neglected by Negroes. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of this experiment in cooperation. It serves as an inspiration to the county and state. The general condition of affairs in the community is a powerful commentary on the social value of changing shiftless renters to responsible landowners. 58 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. APPENDIX A. Table No. 1. Value of Farms and Farm Property, Clarke County, 1910. Land $2,444,057 Land in 1900 627,450 Buildings 713,245 Buildings in 1900 271,240 Implements and machinery 129,595 Implements and machinery in 1900 48,460 Domestic animals, poultry, etc 358,116 Domestic animals, poultry, etc., 1900 110,142 Per cent, of Value of all Property in: Land 67.1 Buildings 19.6 Implements and machinery 3.6 Domestic animals, poultry, etc 9.7 Average Values (Number of all farms, 1,382) : All property per farm ^ 2,637 Land and buildings per farm 2,285 Land per acre , 36.40 Land per acre in 1900 10.23 Table No. S. Size of Farms. Per cent, of all Per cent, of all Size of Farms farms operated by farms operated by White Farmers Colored Farmers 19 acres or less 26.7 26.6 20 — 49 acres 34.3 49.2 50 — 99 acres 20.3 17.3 100 — 174 acres 11.1 5.6 175 — 259 acres 4.2 1.1 260 — 499 acres 2.0 .2 500 — 999 acres 1.4 .0 Table No. 3. Tenure of Fanns. Per Cent, of All Farms Operated by White Colored Owners 37.6 14.1 Part owners 7.2 7.7 Renters 22.8 37.1 Share tenants 32.4 41.1 Table No. 4. Value of Live Stock on the Farms. Cattle: Total Number 2,479 Dairy cows 1.516 Other cows 224 Other cattle 1,479 Value $56,114 Horses 707 Value $94,325 Mules 1,155 Value $181,035 Swine 2,177 Value $15,915 Sheep 112 RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 59 Value $484 Number of poultry of all kinds 18,137 Value $9,028 Number of colonies of bees 348 Value $674 Table No. 5. Yield and Acreage of Principal Crops. Acres Yield Corn 9,172 105,100 bushels Oats 1,930 34,404 Wheat 687 6,106 Rye 20 222 Potatoes 204 19,277 Hay and forage 3,202 3,698 tons Cotton 23,207 9,346 bales Dry peas 541 1,897 bushels Sorghum cane 56 296 tons Table No. 6. Farm Exijenses. Labor — Farms reporting 564 Cash expended $59,256 Rent and board furnished 25,457 Feed — Farms reporting 416 Amount expended $29,243 Fertilizer — Farms reporting 1,129 Amount expended $78,855 APPENDIX B. Some answers to the question, "Opinion as to relative /merits of wage system, cropping, and renting, from the standpoints of the landlord, laborer, and care of land." These answers include all the reasons given for preferring one system to the others. 1. From the landlord's standpoint, the wage system is superior to the other two, because it gives him better control of his hands, and enables him to keep up his land. We have to depend on crop pers, though, because we cannot get enough wage hands. Crop ping is the best system for the tenant, because it gives him the benefit of the landlord's expert knowledge of farming. Land can be kept up best under the wage system, and suffers most under the renting system. 2. I believe that cropping is the best system for the landlord, because under that system his hands have an interest in the crop that wage hands do not have, and hence do better work. As far as the tenant is concerned, I don't see much difference in working on halves and working for wages, except when the tenant has a family. Then, of course, he can make more at cropping, because of the help furnished by his family. The wage system keeps up the land best. 3. Prom every standpoint I think the cropping system is superior to the other two. The farm owner has laborers who are interested in the crop, and are not trying to kill time. It certainly is best 60 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. for the tenant, if he has any family to help him, because he makes so much more at it. One of my croppers, who has considerable help, cleared $700 last year. I can keep my land up as well with "halvers" as I can with wage hands. 4. The wage system is the best one for the landowner. Croppers cost him more than wage hands do. And at busy seasons the owner can hire the laborer's wife and children as extra hands. The laborer certainly makes mbre out of cropping. It takes wage hands to keep land up. 5. I believe cropping is best for the landlord, the tenant, and the land. A tenant working on halves knows that the better the crop, the more he will get out of it, and therefore he does better work than a wage hand, and does not require such close super vision. The tenant makes better crops under this system than he does as a renter. I can tend my land as well with croppers as with wage hands. 6. The landlord can make more out of the half share system, provided he can get families who will work. Unless a laborer has a family large enough to be of real help to him in the field, he will do better to work for wages. Land can be built up faster and cared for better with wage hands than with croppers. The cropper is interested in the crop, but not in keeping your land up. 7. From tlie landlord's standpoint, the cropping system is best , if he stays on his farm, or is in a position to supervise his tenants properly. But the tenant can make more at renting provided he is a fairly good manager, and knows something about farming. Under the half share system, the better crop he makes, the more rent he has to pay, while as a renter he clears everything over the specified rent and his expenses. I prefer wage hands from the standpoint of taking care of land. 8. The wage hand system is better for the owner and his land. The tenant, of course, makes more out of cropping. I would let my land lie fallow before I would rent it. The rent paid hardly equals the damage done the land. All my croppers work on halves, and they did well last year. None failed to pay up and have some thing besides. 9. ' If I could get the wage hands I would not have a cropper on my land. The landowner can make more money and take better care of his land with hired hands. Cropping is best from the laborer's standpoint. 10. I prefer to work my land with wage hands, but enough of them cannot be secured, and I think share tenants are preferable to renters. It depends largely on the tenant whether he will make more as a renter, share hand or wage hand. One reason I would rather have wage hands if I could get them is because the land can be improved faster under this system. RURAL SURVEY OP CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 61 11. I would do all my farming with wage hands if I could get them. The tenant working on halves does better than the wage hand or renter, as a rule. Wage hands and croppers are about equal when it comes to taking care of land. , 12. From the landlord's standpoint, I think the best plan is to rent land to white men, or else work it with negro croppers or wage hands. The white tenant does best as a renter, and the Negro laborer as a wage hand, except when he has a family large enough to help him. I can take care of my land better with croppers than with wage hands. 13. Prom every standpoint I think cropping is better than rent ing or working land with wage hands. It is the most desirable system, since it makes more money for the landlord, and gives the tenant a better chance. 14. If your land is in good condition, and does not have to be built up, the cropping system is best for the landlord. Unless he has considerable help, the laborer can do better as a wage hand than as a cropper or renter. For improving land the wage hand system is certainly the best. 15. The landowner makes more money with wage hands, and keeps his land in better condition with wage hands, but the laborer makes more out of cropping. 16. I have not been able to keep my land up with croppers, and this year I have only wage hands. The landowner has to put up too much against the Negro's labor under the halves plan. The tenants make more out of cropping than they do out of renting. I prefer the wage hand system to either. 17. Working croppers is more profitable to the landlord if he is raising mostly cotton, but if he is raising other crops and prac ticing rotation, he makes more money with wage hands. If the laborer has children old enough to help him in his crop, he does better as a cropper than as a wage hand. Prom the standpoint of the care of land, wage hands are better than croppers or renters. 18. I work my farm altogether with wage hands, because it is more profitable than cropping or renting, and because the land can be tended best under the wage hand system. The laborers do better as wage hands than they do as croppers. 19. I consider the wage hand system better than cropping or renting from every standpoint. 20. From the standpoints of the landlord and the care of land, the wage system is best. From the tenant or laborer's standpoint, cropping is the best, because the tenant makes more out of this system of tenancy. 21. The wage system is more profitable to the landlord. The tenant, of course, makes more money by working on halves. The cropping system is unfair to the landlord. He has to put up too 62 UNIVERSITY OP GEORGIA. much against the Negro's labor. The landlord, therefore, carries the risk. Working wage hands certainly beats cropping, as far as keeping up land is concerned. 22. I prefer the wage system, and think it superior to the others from every standpoint. It is the most businesslike way to farm. 23. Cropping is more profitable to the landlord and the laborer. I have been able to take as good care of my land with croppers as with wage hands. 24. Prom the landlord's standpoint, I don't see much to choose between cropping and working wage hands, because the land can be kept up under both systems, and both are profitable to the land lord. Both of these systems are certainly to be preferred to renting. The laborer makes more money out of cropping than he does by working for wages. 25. Prom the landlord's standpoint, I think renting is best. Under this system the landlord knows what he is going to get for his land, and is not bothered with looking after his tenants. And the tenants seem to do better as renters. They certainly prefer renting to working for wages or on halves. Froni the standpoint of the care of land, crop^ng is the best system. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Brooks, R. P., A Local Study of the Race Problem. New York: Political Science Quarterly, June, 1911. The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865-1912.. University of Wisconsin Bulletin No. 639. Hart, J. K., Educational Resources of Village and Rural Communi ties. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1913. Monahan, A. C, and others. An Educational Survey of a Suburban and Rural County. (Montgomery County, Md.) Washington: Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education, No. 32, 1913. Murphy, E. G., The Basis of Ascendancy. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909. The Present South. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1904. Presbyterian Department of Church and Country Life, Wilson, W. H., Director. A Rural Survey in Missouri. (No date). Ohio Rural Life Survey. "Church Growth and Decline in Ohio." (No date). New York Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Smith, G. G., Story of Georgia and the Georgia People. Atlanta: Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1900. Stevens, O. B., Georgia Historical and Industrial. Atlanta: Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1901. Strahan, C. M., Athens and Clarke County. Atlanta: Charles P. Byrd, 1893. RURAL SURVEY OF CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 63 Taft, Anna B., Community Study for Country Districts. New York: The Presbyterian Department for Missionary Education, 1912. Weatherford, W. D., Negro Life in the South. Nashville, 1911. Present Forces in Negro Progress. Nashville, 1912. Woofter, T. J., Jr., The Negroes of Athens, Georgia. Athens: Bul letin of the University of Georgia, Volume XIV, Number 4, 1913. ¦ (Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Studies, No. 1.) i^^lS^J Erf3S«J> .;:iaaP- MK^S«Ki:--".;r' -„^-.ri^ L-i--"i4-^ — r^^^p ^ya ffisP #' ijS^i^OTg ^^^ !Twti;i;l.'-'i ¥.: r